Many types of articulating ball-and-socket fluid couplings are commonly known in the art. One known coupling teaches an articulating ball-and-socket joint for coupling pipes and tubes with the ball being held in contact with the socket by an internal fastening device. Another known coupling teaches an articulating pipe or hose coupling that includes a socket member, a ball member and a coupling rod arranged in a slotted cross-piece having a gooseneck configuration at one end. A nut is threaded onto the rod to connect the socket member and ball member together.
Although the commonly-known articulating ball-and-socket couplings are useful in many applications, their use is not optimum for certain applications where potential coupling failure is an issue. One such environment involves coupling use in aircraft. It is known in the art under certain environmental and operational conditions for the ball and socket members to become disengaged from one another because the fastening device holding the ball and socket members together fails. For example, in the above-described articulating ball-and-socket couplings, it is possible that the nut might unwind from the threaded rod resulting in failure of the articulating ball-and-socket coupling.
Attempts to minimize the likelihood of coupling failure have been made in the prior art. For example, two nuts are sometimes engaged with the threaded end of the rod. However, using two nuts continues to raise concerns for use in aircraft.
It would be beneficial to provide a ball-and-socket fluid coupling with an improved retainer structure for retaining the ball member and socket member connected together. It would also be beneficial to provide a ball-and-socket fluid coupling having redundant retainer structures for retaining the ball member and socket member connected together. The present invention provides these benefits.